Design Rights

Design law is a rapidly growing and increasingly important part of a comprehensive intellectual property strategy for many companies. McAndrews is one of a handful of firms with the design law expertise required to protect the visual component of innovations. Both in the United States and internationally, McAndrews is a design law firm of choice. We have been asked to protect some of the most recognizable, significant designs in the world. Our track record in the design rights field speaks for itself.

McAndrews has devised and implemented worldwide design right prosecution and enforcement strategies for some of the world’s largest companies in a wide range of industries such as nutritional products, beverages and beverage dispensing, furniture, medical devices, housewares, fashion and apparel, packaging, life sciences, toys, sporting goods, and consumer electronics. Whatever the product, if it has a distinct look and feel, we can help protect it.

At McAndrews, our design patent lawyers are focused on securing enforceable and sustainable design rights that further our clients’ business goals both within the United States and abroad. Our programs help companies protect their unique product designs, and are tailored to each client’s specific strategic goals and needs. Our design protection programs also maximize brand strength and provide a strong weapon against knockoffs, as does our expertise in enforcement.

In today’s ever-changing, global consumer marketplace, product designs have taken on a new importance. This is particularly the case with digital or online products, in which the user experience is often at least as important as the functionality behind them and products are available worldwide, often instantly. The 2016 Apple v. Samsung case provided a stark reminder that proper protection of product designs is a vital part of a fully integrated IP protection strategy.

Our firm has orchestrated design filings in more than 60 countries. We are intimately familiar with the intricacies of international design law and can take full advantage of the cost savings offered by international filing systems such as RCD, Hague, and OAPI. We have also created programs integrating design patents and trade dress that minimize the chances of a client’s product falling prey to knockoffs.

We offer clients:

• Comprehensive design protection, enforcement, licensing, and acquisition programs
• Creative design patent prosecution strategies for market preservation
• Decisive strategies for avoiding design patent infringement and validity assessments
• Design-around recommendations for entire product lines
• Innovative integration of design rights with trade dress and other IP protection
• Programs especially suited for ornamental product design, UX/UI design, graphical user interfaces, icons and apps

We are widely recognized as a thought leader in design rights. McAndrews attorneys include the past chair of the AIPLA’s Design Rights Committee and the current Chair of the American Bar Association’s Design Rights Committee. We also serve in key leadership roles on design committees at the International Trademark Association, Intellectual Property Owners Association, International Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property, and the IDSA, and we often contribute to the U.S. Patent Office’s annual Design Day. We are a recognized leader in the development of IP legal standards in design rights. For example, we represented the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) before the U.S. Supreme Court in a matter regarding the test for design patent infringement, and the American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA) in the landmark case Egyptian Goddess v. Swisa, whose positions were largely adopted by the Federal Circuit.